Vocabulary games can help you remember your new vocabulary words.
Increasing your vocabulary can enhance your image, intelligence and potentially open up more doors of opportunities in your career. Learning new vocabulary and retaining recently learned vocabulary words can be done through different games. Although not an all-inclusive list, matching games, scrambling games, Hangman and rhyming techniques have all been employed to improve vocabulary.
Matching
Write all current and new vocabulary words on index cards. Make two of each word. Mix the cards and spread them out one-by-one face down on a flat surface. Each player takes a turn at turning over one card and then leaves it face up. The same player turns over one more card of their choice to see if it matches. If the words do not match, the cards will be turned over for the next player to try. This not only helps each player remember words but uses their mind to remember where each one may be placed from memory. If the cards match, the player can collect both cards and have another turn. This game can be expanded by cutting out magazine images of the word in question and gluing the pictures to each applicable card.
Scrambling
Scrambling games involve scrambling vocabulary words while having someone do their best to unscramble the letters to form the correct word. For example if the new vocabulary word is "superior," the letters may be scrambled, "p-e-s-r-i-r-o-u." Players attempt to place them in the correct order. Scrambling can be done with pen and paper, flash cards or letters handwritten out on poster board.
Hangman
Hangman is a game where two or more players try to guess the correct letters of the unknown word. Blank lines are drawn in a row, one for each letter of the word. If the letters are not guessed correctly, one body part at a time is drawn hanging from a gallows for each incorrect letter guess, until the stick figure is complete. If the player guesses incorrectly to the point where the stick person is complete, the person guessing the letters loses. If the player guesses a letter correctly, the letter is placed in the appropriate slot below the drawing space. For example, if the word to guess is "solar" and the other player guesses the letter "s," the first player will write the letter "s" in the first blank slot. If the other player guesses "i," the first player draws a circle for a head as the beginning of the stick figure. This continues until either the "man is hung" or the word is guessed correctly.
Rhyming
Rhyming is another way of memorizing vocabulary words. Rhymes can be made that include the new vocabulary words. The rhymes can be said together during class time or be set to music to help the person remember. For example, "We used the solar to work the controller after we moved it with the leaf roller." Coming up with the rhymes can certainly be a fun activity. Try to find as as many words that rhyme with the new vocabulary word, then try to use those words in the rhyming sentence.
Tags: vocabulary words, player guesses, first player, guessed correctly, guesses letter